For those that were present at the concert in the park in Smithfield Saturday night, toes were tapping and hands were clapping to the eclectic musical styling of Lightwood Duo.

Mike Christiansen of Smithfield, Utah and Eric Nelson of Richmond, Utah make up the popular Lightwood Duo that provided the music for the concert on Saturday. The two members of the duo originally played together in a band that performed some rock, some jazz, and various other types of music at private parties and corporate events. Christiansen had begun to work on some solo performances, when Nelson brought his clarinet to the office of Christiansen and they began to work on some jazz pieces. And like the saying goes, “the rest is history.”

The duo played for quite a while at the Cottonwood Club in Salt Lake City, mixed in with some local gigs. The duo have traveled and also played engagements in New York and Hawaii, as well as performances all over the country. Now in their twentieth year performing together the duo mostly plays local events.

Saturday night the crowd was entertained with music ranging from jazz hits like “St. Louis Blues,” to a cover of a song written by Sting the former lead singer of the 80’s rock band “The Police.” Preforming “Take Five” so named for its 5/4 measure the duo added some fun to the piece by mixing in a little bit of the theme from “Mission Impossible” to the piece.

Saturday night’s performance also included a medley of Beetles songs, and some of Lightwood Duo’s original works, followed up by some classic pieces such as “Classical Gas,” and a gypsy tune called “Dark Eyes.” The duo threw in some Gershwin with the hit “Summertime” and closed the concert with “Stars & Stripes Forever.”

During the closing piece the audience, made up largely of Arizona “Snowbirds,” tapped their toes and clapped along with the upbeat medley. The duo added their own touch to the song that included an impressive drum solo performed on the guitar by Christiansen, and a bit later in the piece Nelson mixed in a clarinet rendition of the Jewish tune “Hava Nagila.”

Christiansen is a longtime professor of music at Utah State University heading up the guitar program. Nelson is the band director at Spring Creek Middle School. Working together for more than 26 year the two performers have a great body of music that is enjoyable to listen to, and was a treat for all in attendance at Saturday night’s performance.

The fantastic music of the duo is available in seven CD’s that the duo have put out, most of which can be found on their website at the “Lightwood Duo website”:http://www.lightwoodduo.com/index/.html. Music that is no longer in print can be found by doing a search for Lightwood Duo on iTunes.

The soothing sounds of the Lightwood Duo will be followed up by future movies and concerts in the park. Next up will be a concert performed by Lilium on the Central Park Stage in the park just north of the Library in Smithfield. This concert will be held at 7pm on July 9th. That performance will be followed up by the movie, “How to Train Your Dragon” shown in Mack Pack at 8:30 pm. The final event for July will be the movie “Despicable Me” shown at Elk Ridge Park at 8:30 pm.

For a schedule of events that will run through August check the community calendar on SmithfieldSun.com. There is also a PDF document is available as part of the June 2011 Newsletter found at the “Smithfield Recreation website”:http://www.smithfieldrecreation.com/web/site/PDFS/11%20June%20Newsletter.pdf/